Glitter Season Is Upon Us

I have been busy this morning preparing activities for our classes next week. Of course, the theme is Bonfire Night and, inevitably, this involves the dreaded glitter. Over years in education and with my own small children I have found that resistance is futile. During November and December glitter will be making surprise appearances all over the house, car, clothes, hair…you get the idea! The fact is that children of all ages absolutely love using glitter and I must say, I am rather drawn to sparkly crafts myself. With this is mind, I have created a little list of ideas to keep some of the mess contained. It probably won’t be as bad as you think (just don’t turn your back!)

ALWAYS put down some sort of covering on the table or floor (newspapers are good as they can just be rolled up and thrown away).

Use a tray. At Art Explorers we use Tuff Spot trays which I can not recommend highly enough. You can buy them at DIY stores for around £13; they are sometimes called cement mixing trays. Failing that, use a baking tray or similar. Just something with sides!

Provide only small amounts of glitter, topping up when needed. Small child + large tub of glitter = disaster waiting to happen.

Use contact paper (sticky backed plastic) for your glitter creations. This is much less messy than glue and it contains the glitter more effectively. It can also be used to collect unused glitter.

Use a ball of play-dough to collect any stray glitter. Children will love rolling it around to make a sparkly ball and in doing so they will have done the cleaning up for you!

If you are still worried about glitter in your house…try craft in the (empty)bath! The only place that glitter will be going is down the plug hole.